How Russian cyberwar hackers invaded the U.S.

A filing cabinet broken into in 1972 as part of the Watergate burglary sits beside a computer server that Russian hackers breached during the 2016 presidential campaign

❝ When Special Agent Adrian Hawkins of the Federal Bureau of Investigation called the Democratic National Committee in September 2015 to pass along some troubling news about its computer network, he was transferred, naturally, to the help desk.

❝ Yared Tamene, the tech-support contractor at the D.N.C. who fielded the call, was no expert in cyberattacks. His first moves were to check Google for “the Dukes” and conduct a cursory search of the D.N.C. computer system logs to look for hints of such a cyberintrusion. By his own account, he did not look too hard even after Special Agent Hawkins called back repeatedly over the next several weeks — in part because he wasn’t certain the caller was a real F.B.I. agent and not an impostor…

❝ It was the cryptic first sign of a cyberespionage and information-warfare campaign devised to disrupt the 2016 presidential election, the first such attempt by a foreign power in American history. What started as an information-gathering operation, intelligence officials believe, ultimately morphed into an effort to harm one candidate, Hillary Clinton, and tip the election to her opponent, Donald J. Trump.

❝ Like another famous American election scandal, it started with a break-in at the D.N.C. The first time, 44 years ago at the committee’s old offices in the Watergate complex, the burglars planted listening devices and jimmied a filing cabinet. This time, the burglary was conducted from afar, directed by the Kremlin…instead of Republican President Richard Nixon.

RTFA. Journalism from the NY TIMES mostly unadulterated by editorial requirements. Well done tale of the level of cyber-ignorance common to much of our government, a significant chunk of the global corporate world.

A worthwhile read for you and me – long before the movie comes out. And it will.

6 thoughts on “How Russian cyberwar hackers invaded the U.S.”

Thirteen Russians have been charged with interfering in the US 2016 election, in a major development in the FBI investigation. (BBC 2/16/18) http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-43092085 Three of those named have been accused of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and five have been accused of aggravated identity theft.
The announcement was made by Special Counsel Robert Mueller, who is investigating alleged Russian meddling. Three Russian companies are also named in the indictment.
The indictment says some of the defendants used computer systems in the US to hide the Russian origin of their activities. “Defendants, posing as US persons and creating false US personas, operated social media pages and groups designed to attract US audiences,” it reads.